The African Economic Outlook is the African Development Bank’s flagship annual publication. It provides economic data as well as analysis and recommendations for the continent’s economies. Each edition focuses on a contemporary theme. The 2021 theme From debt resolution to growth: the road ahead for Africa highlights the impact of Covid-19 and government debt and offers mitigating measures to governments and policymakers. This latest African Economic Outlook estimates that Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 2.1% in 2020, the continent’s first recession in half a century. The AfDB does however project GDP growth on the continent to grow by 3.4% in 2021. Regarding debt, the report estimates that African governments need additional gross financing of about $154 billion in 2020/21 to respond to the COVID-19 crises.
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